Computers and networks process ever increasing amounts of information. Cost effective and user friendly techniques to store all this information require increasing attention. A high speed network allows the use of centralized hierarchical mass storage systems that can relieve researchers from the time consuming task of archival data storage. It will also give researchers temporary use of large amounts of storage that are sometimes required. Centralized mass storage systems could be cost effective if managed properly, and increase the efficiency of our researchers.
Policies for funding of long--term storage need to be articulated. This process has started in ACS, but will ultimately require wide ranging input from the university community. All storage cannot be free because demand will be unlimited. A reasonable policy that includes user costs will ultimately be to the benefit of all. Again, this is an example of high cooperative funding of resources, although contentious, can provide UMBC with efficiencies that make us more competitive.
As stated earlier, many researchers are depending on high speed access to large datasets. This includes almost all fields of science and engineering and is fast becoming important for many other fields of research at UMBC. This is being driven by the increased availability of all types of databases, and the use of digital archiving of images in many fields. A fast link to the Internet will be increasingly important over time for many researchers.